About the talk: One of the major construction projects underway in Silicon Valley is the new San Francisco 49er stadium. Given recent power disruptions at Candlestick Park and at the Superdome, the local utility and design-build contractor will describe solutions to minimize the potential of future disruptions without complicating the system.

SILICON VALLEY POWER: Providing service to the new San Francisco 49er stadium offered many unique challenges to Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the municipal electric utility serving the City of Santa Clara.

Orville will discuss the challenges faced by SVP, including the installation of multiple facilities within a very constrained space, meeting stadium power requirements and operating conditions. The approach to and design of the distribution facilities that will serve the stadium is expected to provide a very high level of reliability and maximum operational flexibility to meet all of the varied uses for the stadium.

CUPERTINO ELECTRIC: The stadium power distribution serves many building functions such as concession stands, five star amenities, data systems, suites, offices, and most critically sports lighting and audio visual systems used to help transmit the game across the country and globe. From utility to sports lights, each voltage level is configured to minimize the possibility of disruption to such critical components.

Dan will recap the event at the Superdome and how this type of outage can be avoided at the New Santa Clara Stadium with careful planning and engineering. He will discuss the architecture of the sports lighting system and how each level in the power distribution system is designed to maximize uptime. Some of the elements required to achieve maximum uptime include relay restraints, calculated coordination with SVP, and special planning at the switchgear and substations.

About the Speakers:

Dan Boresch, P.E., Lead Engineer, Cupertino Electric

Dan is currently a Lead Electrical Engineer in Cupertino Electric’s Engineering Department, executing power and lighting designs for complex facilities. This covers a wide range of industrial, pharmaceutical, institutional, and commercial projects within Cupertino Electric’s project management and production capabilities.

Cupertino Electric became a key player with the final development and construction of the New Santa Clara Stadium in February 2012 under general contractor Turner-Devcon Joint Venture. Cupertino Electric is responsible for the design and installation of all power, lighting, and low voltage communications system raceways and network cabling necessary to bring the stadium to life.